[Music] Howdy again everyone and let's get Straight into reviewing what I'm sure Will be the telephoto Workhorse lens of Choice for many Nikon Miller shooters For many years to come the Nikon Z 100 To 400 millimeter F 4.5 to 5.6 VR S it's Only for Nikon's third Mount mirrorless Cameras full frame or aps-c and it's on The shelves now at a rather expensive Price of 2 700 US dollars or 2 600 Pounds here in the UK that really is a Lot of money to ask but if the lens's Image quality is excellent enough then Combined with its useful telephoto Zoom Range of 100 to 400 millimeter it could Be a useful and relatively flexible Option for Wildlife Shooting and well Just about any other long range work I'd Like to thank Nikon UK for learning me This lens for evaluation for a couple of Weeks although as usual this is a Totally independent review the lens Looks cool and its build quality is very Nice and solid being a mixture of metal And heavy GT Plastics with a metal Tripod mount attached the bottom of Which can be removed the whole lens is a Little on the heavy side at about 1.4 Kilograms or a little over three pounds It features a fair bit of weather Sealing including a generous gasket Around to the rear mount and it can also Be used with Nikon's 1.4 times and two
Times teleconverters the lens is very Controllable on the outside towards the Rear we get a smoother moving Customizable control ring as well as a Couple of extra customizable control Buttons Nikon's gimmicky but actually Kind of cool OLED display sits on the Top able to show you various settings You're shooting at then comes the Rubberized manual focus ring it works Really nice and responsively with the Lenses Focus motor and some further good News is that the lens seems to exhibit No visible Focus breathing as you focus In and down The lenses autofocus Motor Works Silently and accurately it's not the Fastest in the world but it works fairly Quickly nonetheless perhaps it would be A bit more confident on a newer camera Body then comes the large rubberized Zoom ring it works quite smoothly with a Touch of stickiness to it but it's not Too heavy to turn the lens has its own Image stabilization built in here's some Footage with it turned off and now Turned on as you can see it's Fantastically effective actually holding Your image pretty firm although video Makers will still want to use a tripod For critical shots obviously the front Of the lens has a rubber trim to it to Prevent damage from accidental knocks And it comes with a lockable plastic
Hood the front filter sizes 77 Millimeters overall the build quality is Excellent in just about everywhere Imaginable although it really does feel A little heavy in use Okay let's take a look at image quality Now I'll be testing the lens on a Nikon Z7 camera with its 45 megapixel full Frame sensor in camera Corrections are Turned on for this test at the widest Angle of 100 millimeter straight from F 4.5 we see razor sharpness and excellent Contrast in the middle of the image as For the corners well they look just About perfect too the lens tasted sharp Down to about f11 although F16 is Looking softer due to the effects of Diffraction still a fabulous start here Let's zoom in halfway to 250 millimeter At the new maximum aperture of F5 the Image is looking really nice here Although it doesn't quite have the same Edge of resolution as at 100 millimeter The further good news is that the Corners are looking just as good again Nice I found that stopping down to f8 or F11 didn't really make anything sharper And the contrast is good but not great Let's Zoom all the way in now to 400 Millimeter at F 5.6 sharpness is just Fair in the middle and contrast just Okay Corner image quality is a little Softer but still acceptable at f8 though The corners definitely look brighter and
Sharper and the middle looks noticeably Sharper too f11 looks about the same but As usual stop down to F16 for Diffraction to start to cause a little Softening overall well when shooting at Wider angles this lens is Riding High Zoom all the way in though and sharpness And contrast are just good until these Top down to F a torso for those of you Curious here's how the 400 millimeter Image quality compares to the 100 to 400 Millimeters sister lens the very nice Nikon 400 millimeter F 4.5 prime lens I Was a huge fan of the 400 millimeter F 4.5 and as you can see here even though It has a brighter aperture at 400 Millimeter it's considerably sharper With much better contrast than the zoom Lens over inner Corners it's way sharper Even stop down to f8 it retains a Considerable advantage over the zoom Lens in the image corners and back in The middle too so there's your choice Between the two lenses and it's the Classic difference between a zoom and a Prime lens image quality in the prime or Flexibility in the zoom lens anyway Let's move on and take a look at Vignetting and distortion on a full Frame camera with in-camera corrections Turned off at 100 millimeter and F 4.5 We see a little vignetting but nothing Too serious and negligible pincushion Distortion as you zoom into 400
Millimeter that Distortion infiniating Gets stronger it's top down to f8 though And those Corners mostly brighten up This lens can focus down to about one Meter offering you great magnification For shooting smaller subjects at F 5.6 Close-up image quality is really hazy Though unfortunately stop down to f8 for Sharpness and contrast to make a return Let's see how the lens works against Bright Lights now at wider angles there Is some notable flaring here but it's Nothing too intrusive as you zoom in That flaring stays about the same but Bright lights in a picture begin to Affect contrast a bit more and finally Boca the lenses maximum matcher of f 4.5 To 5.6 hardly makes it a bokeh machine But zoom into your subject a bit and Some clearly out of focus backgrounds Are your reward and the further good News is that they virtually always look Beautifully smooth whether you're zoomed In or zoomed out overall I was fairly Satisfied with this lens it has Exceptional build quality and incredible Sharpness at wider angles there's just That question mark of the performance at 400 millimeter at F 5.6 it's just not Quite what it should be for a lens in This price range don't get me wrong it's Good that's for sure but the punchiness I was hoping for only begins to emerge When you stop down at about f8 or so I
Guess I'm just one of the small number Of people out there who would sacrifice Having that Zoom range in exchange for Having the lovely Nikon 400 millimeter F 4.5 lens instead I'm probably just a Little biased there but for those Wanting them flexibility of its Zoom Range it still comes recommended if you Can stomach it's rather High asking Price What are these lemurs even up to I could Spend all day in that enclosure with Them just imagine how cool it would be To have a tale like that anyway hope you Found that video helpful if you Regularly watch them the video status Not the Lemurs and you'd like to support This channel to keep it going Sponsorship free then check out my Patreon page down in the description Below their supporters get all kinds of Exclusive bonus content and thanks to All of you for supporting this channel Take care and God bless Thank you
